[vorpalhex]

I think you are correct here in terms of the base argument but wrong for the origin.

You don't make food cheaper by reducing the quality of ingrediants since decent ingredients are still really cheap. You make food cheaper by making it more preserved.

A lot of food cost is in waste and spoilage. Cheap foods are typically things that handle well and don't perish easily.

You accomplish this by adding more fat, more salt, and heavily processing food. You strip all the bacteria and cultures from it and you can get a tv dinner to last a decade if it's packaged well.

On the other hand, gourmet food is all prone to spoilage. Squeaky cheese curds, fresh pasta, homemade tortillas, etc.